I laughed out loud on a few occasions (the train station scene at the start, for one), and giggled audibly an awful lot more. So much of it is told in a very matter-of-fact way, with a somewhat peevish middle-class voice that it makes the situations or the commentary that much more absurd.

Some of the travelogue side of it was interesting, mostly from recognising places described (and exclaiming aloud as I realised he was talking about a staircase in a bookshop in Kingston I've much admired (now, thankfully, free of the blue wallpaper!))